Palestinian ISP Offers Broadband Band-Aid in West Bank

Cellular network towers perched on a ridge of the Israeli settlement of Psagot dominate the view from the Ramallah office of Hani Alami, the chief executive and founder of Palestinian internet service provider CoolNet.

The towers dominate competition for broadband services as well. Anyone who has a smartphone with the SIM card of an Israeli mobile carrier can get broadband access at the CoolNet headquarters. But subscribers to the two Palestinian mobile providers, Jawwal and Wataniya, can’t get the same service because Israel, which controls the cellular spectrum, has for years demurred on requests to release 3G frequencies.

“Its ridiculous that it is blocking the Palestinian operator and giving it to the Israeli operator,” Mr. Alami said. “The question you have all the time in your mind is, ‘Why?’ Why is it allowed for him and not allowed for me.”

CoolNet’s Hani Alami says the Palestinian public Wi-Fi service will be available later this year.

Joshua Mitnick for The Wall Street Journal

Now, Mr. Alami has come up with something of a broadband Band-Aid: CoolNet is rolling out a street-level Wi-Fi network that will allow mobile-phone subscribers of Wataniya to get broadband services throughout the West Bank.

He said that such public Wi-Fi networks have already been set up as back-ups for overloaded 4G networks in places such as sports stadiums. It’s a relatively inexpensive solution for the Palestinians, but coverage will be limited compared to a cellular network.

It turns out that the Palestinian solution is in demand elsewhere in the developing world as well. CoolNet is rolling out similar Wi-Fi networks in Togo, South Sudan, and Iraq – giving residents there wireless broadband access even though there’s no cellphone infrastructure, Mr. Alami said. The Palestinian public Wi-Fi service will be available later this year.

“Anybody that has an iPad, iPhone or Android phone will be connected through this network,” he said. “There’s huge demand for mobiles to be connected all the time to the broadband network.”

The lack of access has been a bone of contention among Palestinians and international organizations like the World Bank, which argued that it leaves the mobile providers at an unfair disadvantage and hurts local development of mobile phone applications.

Israel’s communications ministry declined to say why the frequencies have not been allocated so far, except to note that the issue is currently under discussion with Palestinian officials, who discussed the demand as recently as two weeks ago.

With a degree from Technion, Israel’s technology institute, Mr. Alami was one of the first Arab employees of Motorola’s local subsidiary and he engineered the roll out of the first Palestinian two-way radio networks in the early 1990s.

Ever since, Mr. Alami has focused on modernizing Palestinian telecommunication and internet services. CoolNet was one of the first service providers to compete with the telephone monopoly PalTel in providing broadband internet for large offices in the Palestinian territories, slashing access costs.

Three years ago, CoolNet began setting up wireless networks to provide broadband in-home access to tens of thousands of private users in remote Palestinian villages not reached by the infrastructure of PalTel.

Mr. Alami accused Israel of delaying 3G roll outs among Palestinian providers in order to give a competitive advantage to Israeli mobile carriers. He said such a policy stunts Palestinian economic growth, and undermines prospects for a peace deal.

“What is the security reason for not giving Palestinians their 3G,” he said. “You don’t want the people to watch a YouTube video? Enough is enough.”

Despite the criticism of the government, Mr. Alami said he has good ties with the Israeli technology community – he mentors Arab students at Technion, uses Israeli-made telecom equipment (he even tried turning around a bankrupt company), and has received Israeli support for a technology accelerator he is pushing in Palestinian East Jerusalem.

“When the economic side grows in Palestine the economy grows in Israel,” Mr. Alami said. “It’s a win win.”